During the first two decades of the 1900's, designer Gustav Stickley published The Craftsman magazine as a means of propagating principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, which was a reaction against Victorian stylistic excesses. The Craftsman emphasis was on harmony with nature, craftsmanship, and “honest” structural design and materials, rather than a merely decorative approach.
Craftsman buildings tended to have a rustic appearance, and often were cottages, bungalows, or vaguely Tudor with visible external timbers. Fieldstone, concrete, stucco, and shingle often appear on the exterior.
Other than a few Craftsman-influenced porches added to earlier structures, Chatham has few Craftsman examples. The most visually representative Craftsman-type house in town is at 209 South Main Street, built by funeral director David Jefferson.
(See also architectural pattern books from the period, containing Craftsman examples.)
References:
This website and its ChathamGuide.com portal are sponsored by Mitchells Publications.
Copyright © 2006–2008 Patricia B. Mitchell.